Dual-sided product placement and information strips

ABSTRACT

A single dual-sided product placement and information strip includes a first side with product information for consumers and a second side with product placement information for placing products on a display shelf. The dual-sided product placement and information strip enables information necessary for consumers to be printed on the first (consumer-facing) side and information that assists stockers to place products on shelves to be printed on the second (opposing) side. Also disclosed are systems and methods for formatting and printing the dual-sided product placement and information strips. The single dual-sided product placement and information strip may be printed alone or in a single sheet along with one or more other dual-sided product placement and information strips.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/654,755, filed Jul. 20, 2017, entitled “DUAL-SIDED PRODUCT PLACEMENTAND INFORMATION STRIPS”, which is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to dual-sided product placement and informationstrips each having a first side with product information for consumersand a second side with product placement information for placingproducts on a display shelf, and systems and methods for formatting andprinting the dual-sided product placement and information strips.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Stocking shelves can be an inaccurate and time-consuming process.Various product placement strips and associated systems and methods havebeen developed to increase the efficiency with which stocking personnelcan stock shelves and other display areas. However, these strips maybegin to have extraneous markings on consumer-facing sides of the stripsto help stocking personnel place products on shelves. Furthermore, thelimited space on consumer-facing sides of the strips may limit what canbe printed to help stocking personnel place products on shelves. Theseand other drawbacks exist with conventional product stocking strips andassociated systems and methods.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A single dual-sided product placement and information strip (referred tointerchangeably herein as a dual-sided strip) includes a first printedsurface on one side and a second printed surface on the other side. Aconsumer-facing product information side includes a first printedsurface having printed product information, at least some of which maybe required by law by various jurisdictions such as local or federalgovernments. A product placement side (opposite the consumer-facingproduct information side) includes a second printed surface havingprinted indicators that assist personnel to place products on a productshelf. The printed indicators may include, for example, an image of aproduct, a boundary indicator that indicates an amount of horizontaland/or vertical display space that the product should occupy, a locationof the dual-sided strip, a type of display used (e.g., shelf, peg-board,etc.), a number of faces of the product, and/or other information thatassists stocking personnel to place products on a product shelf.

Various examples throughout this disclosure may describe a product shelffor illustrative and not limiting purposes. For example, variousimplementations of the invention may be used in connection with otherproduct displays such as, for example, pegboard-based product displays.The dual-sided strip may be secured to the product shelf (or otherproduct display component) such that the product placement side facesthe product shelf and the consumer-facing product information side facesaway from the shelf. In other words, in various implementations, when adual-sided strip is secured to a product shelf, only the consumer-facingproduct information side is intended to be visible from an aisle.Typically, although not necessarily, a single dual-sided strip hasprinted thereon product information (on one side) and placementinformation (on the other side) for a plurality of products to be placedon a shelf.

A dual-sided strip may be printed in a horizontal orientation to beplaced horizontally along a single shelf row (e.g., row of products) orin a vertical orientation to be placed vertically along multiple rows ofshelves (e.g., rows of products). For instance, for horizontalapplications in which the dual-sided strip is wider than it is tall whensecured to a product shelf, information will be printed such thatproduct information and corresponding placement information fordifferent products will be printed side-to-side (e.g., productinformation for one side is printed to the left or right of productinformation for another product). For vertical applications in which thedual-sided strip is taller than it is wide when secured to a productdisplay, information will be printed such that product information andcorresponding placement information for different products will beprinted top-to-bottom (e.g., product information for one side is printedabove or below product information for another product).

In some implementations, to assist with product placement while stockingshelves, the product placement information may be printed upside down(i.e., inverted 180 degrees; also referred to herein as “inverted”)relative to the product information. This allows the stocking personnelto conveniently flip the dual-sided strip upward or downward to switchback and forth to review the product information or the placementinformation while stocking product shelves. In other implementations,the product placement information may be printed right-side up relativeto the product information. In this example, the stocking personnel isable to flip the dual-strip strip leftward or rightward to switch backand forth to review the product information or the placement informationwhile stocking product shelves.

In some implementations, a single dual-sided strip may be printedindividually. In some of these implementations, single dual-sided stripsmay be printed in batches based on the display shelves onto which theyare to be secured (so that batches may be grouped according to theirintended display locations). In some implementations, multipledual-sided strips may be printed in a sheet and each dual-sided strip iscut out or otherwise separated from the sheet. In some of theseimplementations, a given sheet of dual-sided strips may be printed basedon the display shelves onto which they are to be secured (so that asheet of dual-sided strips may be printed according to intended displaylocations).

Generally speaking, a dual-sided strip may be generated by formattinggraphics, text, and/or other content into a layout to be printed ontothe dual-sided strip. Various systems and methods facilitate these andother aspects of a dual-sided strip. For example, the system may includea client device, a composer computer system that generates printinstructions, a printer device that receives the print instructions andprints the dual-sided strip, and/or other components.

In some implementations, the client device may operate within a retaillocation. Alternatively or additionally, the client device may operatein locations remote from the retail location. Although various exampleswill be illustrated as being implemented in a retail setting such as aretail location (e.g., a retail store), the dual-sided strips andsystems and methods of generating these strips may be implemented inother contexts in which items are stored or displayed. For example,distributors, shippers, and others may use the dual-sided strips tostore or otherwise display items. In these implementations, the productinformation may include other information relevant to warehouses,shippers, etc. The retail location may include a planogram database,which may be located onsite or offsite. The planogram database mayinclude a map of the retail location, locations of products withinretail location, and/or other conventional planogram information.

The composer computer system may include various components to formatdual-sided strips. For example, the composer computer system may includea strip editor and a printer interface. The strip editor may generateinstructions for printing a new dual-sided strip and/or update existinginstructions for a dual-sided strip. The strip editor may generate printinstructions for generating the dual-sided strip (hereinafterinterchangeably referred to as “dual-sided strip print instructions” or“set of dual-sided strip print instructions” in which a set ofdual-sided strip print instructions correspond to print instructions forprinting a single dual-sided strip) based on the formatting.

The strip editor may generate dual-sided strip print instructions for anew dual-sided strip based on input from a user through a graphical userinterface and/or automatically without user intervention based onplanogram or other product placement information. In an implementation,dual-sided labels for individual products may be formatted individuallyand then added to dual-sided strip print instructions for a givendual-sided strip. For example, the strip editor may generate dual-sidedlabel instructions for a product. In this implementation, dual-sidedlabel instructions may correspond to a single product. The dual-sidedlabel instructions may be stored in a database, such as a dual-sidedstrip database. Such stored label instructions may be selected from thedatabase and later added to a given set of dual-sided stripinstructions.

In some implementations, the strip editor may obtain planograminformation, populate a dual-sided strip template based on the planograminformation, and allow the

In an implementation, the strip editor may include multiple dual-sidedlabel instructions into a set of dual-sided strip instructions. In thismanner, a single dual-sided strip printed using the dual-sided stripinstructions may have printed thereon information for a plurality ofproducts. It should be noted that each set of dual-sided labelinstructions may be separately stored as a discreet instructions for acorresponding product.

For human-formatted dual-sided strips, the strip editor may generate auser interface that includes various display options configured toreceive input to design a dual-sided strip. For automatically generated(without human design intervention) dual-sided strips, the strip editormay obtain planogram information for a portion or all of a retaillocation and automatically format dual-sided strips for each. Doing soassumes that the necessary product information and product placementinformation is available, such as from the planogram database or thedual-sided strip database.

In some implementations, the dual-sided print instructions may beprovided to the printer interface, which generates printer readableencodings for a printer device. The printer readable encodings mayinclude printer-specific instructions (such instructions from a printerdriver) or general instructions (such as a PostScript or other format).

The printer device may include an inkjet printer, a laser printer,and/or other type of printer configured to print on a dual-sided stripsubstrate described herein. The printer device may be include a singleprint head or two or more print heads (e.g., dual print head). Singleprint head implementations may print a single side at a time andautomatically or manually reverse the dual-sided strip substrate forprinting the other side, while dual print head implementations may printboth sides at a time or a single side at a time without having toautomatically or manually reverse the dual-sided strip substrate forprinting the other side.

These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the systemand/or method disclosed herein, as well as the methods of operation andfunctions of the related elements of structure and the combination ofparts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent uponconsideration of the following description and the appended claims withreference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of thisspecification, wherein like reference numerals designate correspondingparts in the various figures. It is to be expressly understood, however,that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and descriptiononly and are not intended as a definition of the limits of theinvention. As used in the specification and in the claims, the singularform of “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural referents unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system for generating a dual-sidedproduct placement and information strip, according to an implementationof the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates various high level views of a dual-sided productplacement and information strip, according to an implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary dual-sided product placement andinformation strip, according to an implementation of the invention.

FIG. 4A illustrates an exemplary dual-sided product placement andinformation strip comprising a plurality of dual-sided labels eachcorresponding to a product, according to an implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 4B illustrates an exemplary product information side of adual-sided label for a product, according to an implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 4C illustrates an exemplary product placement information side ofthe dual-sided label for the product, according to an implementation ofthe invention.

FIG. 4D illustrates an exemplary pagination scheme for a dual-sidedproduct placement and information strip, according to an implementationof the invention.

FIG. 5A illustrates a first side of a sheet of dual-sided productplacement and information strip, according to an implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 5B illustrates a second side of a sheet of dual-sided productplacement and information strip, according to an implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 5C illustrates an exemplary pagination scheme for one or moresheets of dual-sided product placement and information strips, accordingto an implementation of the invention.

FIG. 6A illustrates a booklet of dual-sided product placement andinformation strips, according to an implementation of the invention.

FIG. 6B illustrates a portion of a booklet of dual-sided productplacement and information strips, according to an implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 6C illustrates a portion of a booklet of dual-sided productplacement and information strips, according to an implementation of theinvention.

FIG. 7A illustrates an exemplary interface for editing a dual-sidedproduct placement and information strip, according to an implementationof the invention.

FIG. 7B illustrates an exemplary interface for editing a dual-sidedproduct placement and information strip, according to an implementationof the invention.

FIG. 7C illustrates an exemplary interface for editing a dual-sidedproduct placement and information strip, according to an implementationof the invention.

FIG. 8 depicts a process of generating a sheet of dual-sided productplacement and information strips, according to an implementation of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention described herein relates to a system and method ofgenerating and using a dual-sided product placement and informationstrip. A single dual-sided product placement and information strip(referred to interchangeably herein as a dual-sided strip) includes afirst printed surface on one side and a second printed surface on theother side. A consumer-facing product information side includes a firstprinted surface having printed product information, at least some ofwhich may be required by law by various jurisdictions such as local orfederal governments. Examples of product information include, withoutlimitation, a price, a unit price, a product description, a productsize, a product identifier such as a Universal Product Code (“UPC”), abarcode that encodes the product identifier, and/or other informationfor a consumer.

A product placement side (opposite the consumer-facing productinformation side) includes a second printed surface having printedindicators that assist personnel to place products on a product shelf.Examples of product placement information include, without limitation,space requirements (e.g., width of space on the display shelf reservedfor the product, number of facings, etc.), shelf number/location, imageof the product, and/or other information that provides indicators ofwhere the product should be shelved.

Various examples throughout this disclosure may describe a product shelffor illustrative and not limiting purposes. For example, variousimplementations of the invention may be used in connection with otherproduct displays such as, for example, pegboard-based product displays.

The dual-sided strip may be secured to the product shelf (or otherproduct display component) such that the product placement side facesthe product shelf and the consumer-facing product information side facesaway from the shelf. In other words, in various implementations, when adual-sided strip is secured to a product shelf, only the consumer-facingproduct information side is intended to be visible from an aisle.Typically, although not necessarily, a single dual-sided strip hasprinted thereon product information (on one side) and placementinformation (on the other side) for a plurality of products to be placedon a shelf.

A dual-sided strip may be printed in a horizontal orientation to beplaced horizontally along a single shelf row (e.g., row of products) orin a vertical orientation to be placed vertically along multiple rows ofshelves (e.g., rows of products). For instance, for horizontalapplications in which the dual-sided strip is wider than it is tall whensecured to a product shelf, information will be printed such thatproduct information and corresponding placement information fordifferent products will be printed side-to-side (e.g., productinformation for one side is printed to the left or right of productinformation for another product). For vertical applications in which thedual-sided strip is taller than it is wide when secured to a productdisplay, information will be printed such that product information andcorresponding placement information for different products will beprinted top-to-bottom (e.g., product information for one side is printedabove or below product information for another product).

In some implementations, to assist with product placement while stockingshelves, the product placement information may be printed upside downrelative to the product information. This allows the stocking personnelto conveniently flip the dual-sided strip upward or downward to switchback and forth to review the product information or the placementinformation while stocking product shelves. In other implementations,the product placement information may be printed right-side up relativeto the product information. In this example, the stocking personnel isable to flip the dual-strip strip leftward or rightward to switch backand forth to review the product information or the placement informationwhile stocking product shelves.

In some implementations, a single dual-sided strip may be printedindividually. In some of these implementations, single dual-sided stripsmay be printed in batches based on the display shelves onto which theyare to be secured (so that batches may be grouped according to theirintended display locations). In some implementations, multipledual-sided strips may be printed in a sheet and each dual-sided strip iscut out or otherwise separated from the sheet. In some of theseimplementations, a given sheet of dual-sided strips may be printed basedon the display shelves onto which they are to be secured (so that asheet of dual-sided strips may be printed according to intended displaylocations).

Exemplary Dual-Sided Strip Configurations

Dual-sided strips may be configured in various ways. For example, FIG. 2illustrates various high level views 200A-C of a dual-sided productplacement and information strip 170, according to an implementation ofthe invention. In the illustrated implementation, a dual-sided strip mayinclude a first side (“SIDE 1”) and a second side (“SIDE 2”) that isprinted on a single substrate inverted with respect to the first side.View 200A illustrates the first side, view 200B illustrates the secondside, and view 200C illustrates a folded over dual-sided strip forperspective. An XYZ orientation legend is also illustrated fororientation purposes. In other implementations, the second side may beprinted in the same orientation (i.e., not inverted). In eitheralternative, the first and second sides may be printed on either side ofa single substrate. The substrate may be composed of various materialssuch as, without limitation, polyester film (e.g., Mylar™ film), paper,and/or other material that can be printed on as described herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary dual-sided product placement andinformation strip, according to an implementation of the invention.Unlike the illustrated implementation of FIG. 2, the two sides of thedual-sided strip illustrated in FIG. 3 are printed on the same side ofthe substrate and then folded. Like the dual-sided strip illustrated inFIG. 2, the second side of the dual-sided strip may be printed eitherinverted relative to the first side or not inverted relative to thefirst side. Unlike the dual-sided strip illustrated in FIG. 2, the stripillustrated in FIG. 3 may result in excess use of substrate material butmay avoid the necessity of printing on each side of the substrate.

FIG. 4A illustrates an exemplary dual-sided product placement andinformation strip 170 comprising a plurality of dual-sided labels L(1 .. . N) each corresponding to a product, according to an implementationof the invention. Each side (“SIDE 1” and “SIDE2”) of the dual-sidedstrip 170 are illustrated adjacent to one another for clarity. Asillustrated in FIG. 2, SIDE 1 and SIDE 2 are printed on either side of asingle substrate.

In the illustrated implementation, the dual-sided strip 170 may becomposed of a plurality of dual-sided labels (collectively referred toas “L(N)” for convenience). Each dual-sided label L(N) may correspond toa product to be displayed. Each dual-sided label L(N) may have twosides, with each side (A,B) having either product information or productplacement information. The product information side of a givendual-sided label L(N)(A) may be aligned on the same side of thedual-sided strip 170 with other product information sides of otherdual-sided labels L(N)(A). Likewise, the product placement informationside of a given dual-sided label L(N)(B) may be aligned on the same sideof the dual-sided strip 170 with other product placement informationsides of other dual-sided labels L(N)(B).

In an implementation, each dual-sided label L(N) may be allocated adual-sided portion (illustrated as PORTION 1-N) of the dual-sided strip170 in which to occupy. For example, strip editor 146 may allocate afirst dual-sided portion (PORTION (1)) of the dual-sided product stripfor the first dual-sided label L(1). First product information for aproduct corresponding to the first dual-sided label L(1) is allocated tobe printed on a side of the first dual-sided portion corresponding tothe product information side of the dual-sided product strip and thefirst product placement information for the product corresponding to thefirst dual-sided label L(1) is allocated to be printed on a side of thefirst dual-sided portion corresponding to the product placementinformation side of the dual-sided product strip.

Strip editor 146 may make such allocations based on a space requirementof the corresponding product. For example, the corresponding product fora dual-sided label may occupy a certain width of a display shelf (whichmay be indicated by a product width and number of facings—i.e., numberof products to display side-by-side on the display shelf). Strip editor146 may accordingly allocate a portion of the dual-sided strip for adual-sided label based on the space requirement of a product. Stripeditor 146 may identify a position of the allocated portion based on theposition of prior portions already allocated for the dual-sided strip.For example, strip editor 146 may maintain, for each dual-sided stripbeing formatted by placing a plurality of dual-sided labels on thestrip, a measurement counter that increments a width counter based onthe width of previous dual-sided labels already allocated to thedual-sided strip.

In an implementation, the product placement information side of eachdual-sided label may include one or more boundary indicators 402. Suchboundary indicators may indicate the boundary of a corresponding productto be displayed. In this manner, stocking personnel may use the boundaryindicators 402 to position products on shelves.

FIG. 4B illustrates an exemplary product information side (L(1)(A)) of adual-sided label for a product, according to an implementation of theinvention. Each label may occupy a portion (PORTION(1)) of a dual-sidedstrip. As illustrated, the product information side of PORTION(1) mayinclude the product information side of a dual-sided label L(1)(A), aleft-side spacing 403A, and a right-side spacing 403B. In someimplementations, each dual-sided label has a fixed width that does notchange. As such, depending on the width of the space to be occupied by aproduct on a display shelf (hereinafter, also referred to as a “productshelf width”), strip editor 146 may allocate spacers 403A and 403B tofill in any space not occupied by a dual-sided label (either or bothspacers 403A,B may be zero in some instances). In some implementations,a dual-sided label is centered within its allocated portion, in whichcase spacers 403A and 403B are equal to one another. Otherconfigurations (such as left-justified and right justified) may be usedas well. Either of these configurations may be automatically generatedbased on one or more formatting rules, manual input by a user designingdual sided strips, templates for generating dual-sided strips, and/orother input techniques. In some implementations, a dual-sided label mayhave a variable width and spacers 403A and 403B may similarly beadjusted.

The product information side of a dual-sided label may include, withoutlimitation, an upper indicator 401, a price (illustrated as 18.99), aunit price, a product name, a product description, a machine readablecode such as a barcode, and/or other product information. Some of all ofthis information may be required to be presented to consumers by variousgovernmental agencies/regulations.

FIG. 4C illustrates an exemplary product placement information side(L(1)(B)) of the dual-sided label for the product, according to animplementation of the invention. As mentioned above, each label mayoccupy a portion (PORTION(1)) of a dual-sided strip. As illustrated, theproduct placement information side of PORTION(1) may include the productplacement information side of a dual-sided label L(1)(B), a left-sidespacing 403C, and a right-side spacing 403D. In some implementations,each dual-sided label has a fixed width that does not change. As such,depending on the width of the space to be occupied by a product on adisplay shelf (hereinafter, also referred to as a “product shelfwidth”), strip editor 146 may allocate spacers 403C and 403D to fill inany space not occupied by a dual-sided label (either or both spacers403C,D may be zero in some instances). In some implementations, adual-sided label is centered within its allocated portion, in which casespacers 403C and 403D are equal to one another. Other configurations(such as left-justified and right justified) may be used as well. Eitherof these configurations may be automatically generated based on one ormore formatting rules, manual input by a user designing dual sidedstrips, templates for generating dual-sided strips, and/or other inputtechniques. In some implementations, a dual-sided label may have avariable width and spacers 403C and 403D may similarly be adjusted.

The product placement information side of a dual-sided label mayinclude, without limitation, one or more boundary indicators 402, aproduct image, a face count indicator (as illustrated 2 faces for acorresponding product) a product name, a product description, and/orother product placement information. Some of the other information (notillustrated) may include, without limitation, a revision date, aplanogram identifier, a location identifier (e.g., a bay, aisle, and/orshelf identifier), a type of display (e.g., shelf, peg, etc.), anindication of the height from the floor at which the dual-sided strip isto be displayed, a position along shelf at which the strip should beplaced, and/or other information). At least some of the productplacement information may be the same as the product information printedon the reverse side. In other instances, none of the product placementinformation is the same as the product information printed on thereverse side.

In some implementations, the product information side and the productplacement information side may occupy different widths of a dual-sidedlabel. For instance, the product placement information side may have aspacer 403C that is less than a spacer 403A or vice versa. Alternativelyor additionally the product placement information side may have a spacer403D that is less than a spacer 403B or vice versa.

FIG. 4D illustrates an exemplary pagination scheme for a dual-sidedproduct placement and information strip, according to an implementationof the invention.

In some implementations, strip editor 146 may generate printinstructions such as a PDF file, a postscript file, and/or other type offile that can be sent to a printer device for printing (specifically,the print instructions may be provided to printer interface 148 (e.g., adevice driver) that may generate printer executable code for printingthe print instructions.

In some implementations, strip editor 146 may paginate the formattedstrips (e.g., the labels added to a dual-sided strip). Such paginationmay be used to print the dual-sided strip on either side of a substrate.For example, strip editor 146 may format the product information side ofthe dual-sided strip to be on a first page of the print instructions.Strip editor 146 may format the product placement information side ofthe dual-sided strip to be on a second page of the print instructions.In this example, strip editor 146 may include an instruction to printthe first and the second pages dual-sided on a substrate. In theillustrated implementation, strip editor 146 may invert the productplacement information side of each label relative to product informationside of each label so that when the printer instructions are transmittedto a printer device, a dual-sided strip is printed without the printerdevice having to perform additional transformations of the data (otherthan conventional dual-sided printing).

To achieve the foregoing inversions, strip editor 146 may obtain aplurality of dual-sided labels for a dual-sided strip. The dual-sidedlabels may have been individually formatted automatically and/ormanually for a given dual-sided strip as described herein. Strip editor146 may allocate a first portion of the dual-sided strip to a firstdual-sided label. For example, strip editor 146 may position the productinformation side of the first dual-sided label at an X, Y position atpage 1. The X position may indicate a horizontal position and the Yposition may indicate a vertical position on page 1. Likewise, stripeditor 146 may position the product placement information side of thefirst dual-sided label at an X, Y position at page 2. The X,Y positionat page 2 may correspond to the X, Y position on page 1. In this manner,each side of the first dual-sided label may align with one another.

Strip editor 146 may invert the product placement information side ofthe dual-sided label 180 degrees. Strip editor 146 may be able to dothis because the product placement information side of the firstdual-sided label may be formatted and stored separately from (but inassociation with) the product information side of the first dual-sidedlabel. Strip editor 146 may perform such inversion using conventionimage/text flipping and transformation techniques. In someimplementations, a single image of the product placement informationside may be generated and the single image may be inverted by stripeditor 146. In other implementations, each individual element (e.g.,individual graphics, text, etc.) of the product placement informationside may be inverted by the strip editor 146 in the same manner so thatthe entire product placement information side is inverted.

Strip editor 146 may continue to obtain other dual-sided labels for thedual-sided strip and add them similar to the manner in which the firstdual-sided label, with the exception that each time that such otherdual-sided labels is added, a width of a previous portion allocated to aprevious dual-sided label may be used to increment the X position atwhich a current dual-sided label is to be placed. To maintain thealignment between product information and product placement informationsides of each dual-sided label, the same X position may be used foreither side of a given dual-sided label. Strip editor 146 may finishformatting a dual-sided strip when the last dual-sided label for thedual-sided strip has been formatted. The result may be a printinstruction that includes a first page at which the product informationside of the dual-sided labels is printed and a second page at which theproduct placement information side of the dual-sided labels is printed.

Although the product placement information side is illustrated as beinginverted relative to the product information side in the foregoingexamples and other examples used throughout this disclosure, the productinformation side may be inverted relative to the product placementinformation side instead. Likewise, the product information side neednot be on page 1 (or, as will be discussed with respect to FIG. 5C, oddnumbered pages) and the product placement information side need not beon page 2. Instead, the product placement information side may be onpage 1 (and other odd numbered pages) and the product information sidemay be on page 2 (and other event numbered pages).

FIG. 5A illustrates a first side of a sheet of dual-sided productplacement and information strip, according to an implementation of theinvention. According to this implementation, multiple dual-sided strips(Strips 1-6) may be printed on a single sheet of substrate material.other numbers of strips may be printed on a single sheet as well. In theillustrated implementation, the first (“A”) side of each of thedual-sided strips (Strips 1-6) may be printed on one side of the sheet.The first side is denoted in the figure as “Strips 1A-6A”). For example,the product information side of each of the dual-sided strips 1-6 may beprinted on a first side of the sheet.

FIG. 5B illustrates a second side of a sheet of dual-sided productplacement and information strip, according to an implementation of theinvention. In the illustrated implementation, the other side of Strips1-6 (side “B”) may be printed on the other side of the sheet ofsubstrate in an inverted manner. Although not illustrated, the “B” sidemay be printed not inverted relative to the “A” side illustrated in FIG.5A.

In each of FIGS. 5A and 5B, the arrows illustrate delineations such ascut points that indicate where the sheet should be cut or otherwiseseparated to separate the dual-sided strips. The delineations may beprinted or mechanically created. For example, the delineations mayinclude, without limitation, perforations, scoring, guidelines, and/orother techniques to enable the dual-sided strips to be separated fromone another. Alternatively or additionally, the printer or other entitymay automatically cut the strips at the indicated locations.

FIG. 5C illustrates an exemplary pagination scheme for one or moresheets of dual-sided product placement and information strips, accordingto an implementation of the invention. As illustrated, only some of thedual-sided labels are shown in detail and/or labeled. Others are shownin dashed outline with exemplary relative orientations indicated by adirectional arrow for clarity.

The pagination scheme illustrated herein may be generated by stripeditor 146 in a manner similar to the manner disclosed with respect toFIG. 4D, except that the strip editor 146 may add multiple sides ofdual-sided strips to a given page, and, in some instances, generateprint instructions for printing multiple sheets of dual-sided strips.

For example, strip editor 146 may generate print instructions havingmultiple pages. Each pair of odd and even numbered pages may represent asheet of a plurality of dual-sided strips. For example, pages 1 and 2together represent a sheet of a plurality of dual-sided strips, pages 3and 4 together represent another sheet of another plurality ofdual-sided strips, and so on. In this example, page 1 (and other oddnumbered pages) may represent the product information side of theplurality of dual-sided strips and page 2 (and other even numberedpages) may represent the product placement information side of theplurality of dual-sided strips. In this manner, the print instructionsmay specify several dual-sided strips printed on several sheets. Ofcourse, only two pages (pages 1 and 2) for a single sheet of dual-sidedstrips may be used as well.

To generate the illustrated paginations, strip editor 146 may obtain amaximum number of dual-sided strips per sheet. Such maximum may bepredefined (e.g., by a retailer or others designing or otherwise usingthe dual-sided strips) and/or may be automatically determined based on asize of the substrate to be used for printing and the size of thestrips. Strip editor 146 may add strips to each page (similar to themanner described with respect to FIG. 4D), except as a new dual-sidedstrip is place, the X position may be reset to the original value (e.g.,zero or other value indicating a first dual-sided label of thedual-sided strip to be placed), and the Y position may be incrementedbased on a height of a previous strip that was placed. The height ofeach strip may be, but is not necessarily, predefined and fixed. Whenthe maximum number of dual-sided strip per sheet is reached (asdetermined by counting the number of dual-sided strips placed), stripeditor 146 may increment the page number to the next odd numbered page,thereby starting a new sheet (assuming that strips are initially placedat page 1).

In some implementations, a plurality of dual-sided strips may be groupedaccording to various grouping parameters such as, without limitation, anintended display location in the store at which they will be affixed, bystore department, and/or other factor. Such groupings may result in aset of the plurality of dual-sided strips being grouped into a sheet(which is paginated on an even and odd numbered page as describedherein). For example, a given sheet may have a number of groups ofdual-sided strips, according to particular needs.

Furthermore, sheets may be grouped together into print instructionsbased on similar grouping parameters. For example, a print instructionmay be generated for a given department, with each sheet within theprint instruction having a corresponding plurality of dual-sided stripsfor various locations within the department. Other types of groupingsmay be made as well.

FIG. 6A illustrates a booklet of dual-sided product placement andinformation strips, according to an implementation of the invention. Insome implementations, multiple dual-sided strips may be bound togetherto create of booklet of strips. Each booklet may correspond to alocation within a retail location 101. For example, a booklet ofdual-sided strips may include dual-sided strips for a particular aisleor set of adjacent shelves or other display areas. As illustrated, thebooklet may be created by printing, on a single substrate sheet, twodual-sided strips (Strip 1 having sides Strip 1A and 1B and Strip 2having sides Strip 2A and 2B). Other configurations of dual-sided sheetson a single substrate sheet may be used as well, as would be apparentbased on the disclosure herein.

FIG. 6B illustrates a portion of a booklet of dual-sided productplacement and information strips, according to an implementation of theinvention. In the illustrated implementation, the first side of a firstdual-sided strip (“Strip 1A”) and the second side of a second dual-sidedstrip (“Strip 1B”) may be printed on a first side of a substrate. Strip1A may include printed thereon product information for the firstdual-sided strip and Strip 2B may include printed thereon productplacement information for the second dual-sided strip.

FIG. 6C illustrates a portion of a booklet of dual-sided productplacement and information strips, according to an implementation of theinvention. In the illustrated implementation, which illustrates theother side of the sheet of substrate illustrated in FIG. 6B, the secondside of the first dual-sided strip (“Strip 2B”) and the first side ofthe second dual-sided strip (“Strip 2A”) may be printed on the second(other) side of the substrate. Strip 1B may include printed thereonproduct placement information for the first dual-sided strip and Strip2A may include printed thereon product information for the seconddual-sided strip.

As illustrated in FIGS. 6A-6C, the second side of a dual-sided strip isprinted inverted relative to the first side. Alternatively, the secondside of a dual-sided strip may not be printed inverted relative to thefirst side.

A given dual-sided strip may be affixed to a display area such as ashelf through mechanical, chemical, or magnetic techniques. For example,a dual-sided strip may be affixed to a display shelf as disclosed inU.S. Pat. No. 7,287,001, entitled “Electronic Product InformationDisplay System,” which issued on Oct. 23, 2007, the contents of whichare hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.

Exemplary System Architecture

Various systems and methods facilitate these and other aspects of adual-sided strip. Referring to FIG. 1, for example, system 100 mayinclude a client device 120, a composer computer system 140 thatgenerates print instructions, a printer device 150 that receives theprint instructions and prints the dual-sided strip, and/or othercomponents.

Client device 120 may be configured as a personal computer (e.g., adesktop computer, a laptop computer, etc.), a smartphone, a tabletcomputing device, and/or other device that can be programmed to interactwith the composer computer system 140 and/or the planogram database 160to design a dual-sided strip. Although not illustrated in FIG. 1, clientdevices 120 may include one or more physical processors programmed bycomputer program instructions. Client device 120 may be programmed tointerface with composer computer system 140 through network 102 todesign and edit the layout of a dual-sided strip 170.

In some implementations, client device 120 may operate within a retaillocation 101. Alternatively or additionally, client device 120 mayoperate in locations remote from retail location 101. Retail location101 may include various display aisles 130, each having its own displayareas, such as display shelves. Retail location 101 may also include aplanogram database 160, which may be located onsite or offsite.Planogram 160 may include a map of retail location 101, locations ofproducts within retail location 101, and/or other conventional planograminformation.

Composer computer system 140 may be configured as a server (e.g., havingone or more server blades, processors, etc.), a personal computer (e.g.,a desktop computer, a laptop computer, etc.), a tablet computing device,and/or other device that can be programmed to generate printinstructions for printing a dual-sided strip. Composer computer system140 may include one or more processors 142 (also interchangeablyreferred to herein as processors 112, processor(s) 142, or processor 112for convenience), one or more storage devices 144, and/or othercomponents. Processors 142 may be programmed by one or more computerprogram instructions. For example, processors 142 may be programmed bystrip editor 146, printer interface 148 and/or other instructions thatprogram the composer computer system 140 to perform various operations,each of which are described in greater detail herein. As used herein,for convenience, the various instructions will be described asperforming an operation, when, in fact, the various instructions programthe processors 142 (and therefore composer computer system 140) toperform the operation.

Creating or updating dual-sided strips

In an implementation, strip editor 146 may generate instructions forprinting a new dual-sided strip and/or update existing instructions fora dual-sided strip. Generally speaking, a dual-sided strip may begenerated by formatting graphics, text, and/or other content into alayout to be printed onto the dual-sided strip. Strip editor 146 maygenerate dual-sided strip print instructions based on the formatting.

Strip editor 146 may generate dual-sided strip print instructions for anew dual-sided strip based on input from a user through a graphical userinterface (“GUI”) or automatically without user intervention based onplanogram or other product placement information. Whether or notautomatically generated by strip editor 146, the GUI may allow a user tomanually edit an existing set of dual-sided strip print instructions aswell.

In an implementation, dual-sided labels for individual products may beformatted individually and then added to dual-sided strip printinstructions for a given dual-sided strip. For example, strip editor 146may generate dual-sided label instructions for a product. In thisimplementation, dual-sided label instructions may correspond to a singleproduct. The term “dual-sided label instructions” as used herein refersto a set of instructions for printing two sides of a dual-sided stripfor a given product. As such, the dual-sided label instructions mayinclude first instructions for printing product information on one sideof a dual-sided strip and second instructions for printing productplacement information on the other side of the dual-sided strip. Thedual-sided label instructions may be stored in a database, such asdual-sided strip database 162. Such stored label instructions may beselected from the database and later added to a given set of dual-sidedstrip instructions.

In an implementation, strip editor 146 may include multiple dual-sidedlabel instructions into a set of dual-sided strip instructions. In thismanner, a single dual-sided strip printed using the dual-sided stripinstructions may have printed thereon information for a plurality ofproducts. It should be noted that each set of dual-sided labelinstructions may be separately stored as a discreet instructions for acorresponding product. These dual-sided label instructions may be storedin a database, such as dual-sided strip database 162. In thisimplementation, dual-sided strip instructions for a single dual-sidedstrip may include a collection of pointers that each point to discreetdual-sided label instructions for products to be included in thedual-sided strip, as well as coordinate information that keeps track ofthe location for each set of dual-sided label instructions for printingon a dual-sided strip. Alternatively or additionally, dual-sided stripinstructions for a single dual-sided strip may include the actualdual-sided label instructions.

When printing multiple products onto a single dual-sided strip, stripeditor 146 may keep track of the spacing required for each product, asspecified in the product's dual-sided label. In this manner, for singlehead printing operations, strip editor 146 may transform coordinates forprinting a second side in an inverted fashion, if necessary.

For human-formatted dual-sided strips, strip editor 146 may generate auser interface, such as an interface 700 illustrated in FIGS. 7A-7C. Theinterface may be used to view and/or edit existing dual-sided strips aswell. Referring generally to FIGS. 7A-C, interface 700 may includevarious display options configured to receive input. For example, adisplay option 710, when selected, may cause editing options 712 for afirst side (e.g., a product information side) of a dual-sided strip tobe displayed. A display option 730, when selected, may cause editingoptions 732 for a second side (e.g., a product placement informationside) of a dual-sided strip to be displayed. A display option 750, whenselected, may cause a preview of dual-sided strip(s) being designed. Adisplay option 770 may provide a visual indication of the progress offormatting a dual-sided strip. For example, section L1 may indicate alabel for a first product has been formatted on the dual-sided strip andsection L2 may indicate a label for a second product has been formattedon the dual-sided strip. The hashed section may indicate other label(s)for other products to be formatted on the dual-sided strip.

Various other display options may enable configuration of dual-sidedstrips. For example, a SINGLE STRIP display option, when selected, mayconfigure interface 700 to provide design options for a singledual-sided strip to be display. A MULTIPLE STRIPS display option, whenselected, may configure interface 700 to provide design options fordesigning multiple dual-sided strips on a sheet to be displayed. Forexample, when this display option is selected, interface 700 may enabletoggling between different dual-sided strips to be edited for printingon a sheet. A BOUND STRIPS display option, when selected, may configureinterface 700 to provide design options for designing multipledual-sided strips to be bound. When this display option is selected,interface 700 may enable toggling between different dual-sided strips tobe edited for printing on a sheet, and also a manner of binding/how eachdual-sided strip is oriented with respect to one or more otherdual-sided strips (e.g., to achieve the configuration illustrated inFIGS. 6A-C.

An ADD LABEL display option, when selected, may configure interface 700to provide design options for adding a new label for a product. Suchlabels and other product information may be designed according to thevarious interfaces and systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,001,which was previously incorporated by reference. A CREATE STRIP displayoption, when selected, may finalize the formatting of one or moredual-sided strips being designed.

Referring specifically to FIG. 7C, interface 700 may, upon selection ofthe PREVIEW 750 display option, provide a preview display 752 of adual-sided strip being designed. The preview display 752 may enable auser to view each side of the dual-sided strip being designed. Forinstance, one or more display options (not illustrated) may be providedthat allows the dual-sided strip being designed to be flipped to theopposite side so that the user can visualize how the strip will lookwhen printed. Conventional JAVASCRIPT using multiple images may be usedto achieve such an effect. Other program languages (such as MICROSOFTSILVERLIGHT, ADOBE FLASH, etc.) may be used as well.

For automatically generated (without human design intervention)dual-sided strips, strip editor 146 may obtain planogram information fora portion or all of a retail location and automatically formatdual-sided strips for each. Doing so assumes that the necessary productinformation and product placement information is available. To theextent that any required information is missing, strip editor 146 maygenerate an error. To the extent that any optional information ismissing (e.g., an image of the product for the product placementinformation), default information may be provided instead (e.g., “noimage available” or simply “N/A”).

In some implementations, the dual-sided print instructions may beprovided to a printer interface (e.g., printer interface 148), whichgenerates printer readable encodings for a printer device 150. Theprinter readable encodings may include printer-specific instructions(such instructions from a printer driver) or general instructions (suchas a PostScript or other format).

Printer device 150

Printer device 150 may include an inkjet printer, a laser printer,and/or other type of printer configured to print on a dual-sided stripsubstrate described herein. Printer device 150 may be include a singleprint head or two or more print heads (e.g., dual print head). The term“print head” is intended to mean one or more components of a printingapparatus that prints on a single side of a substrate. Single print headimplementations may print a single side at a time and automatically ormanually reverse the dual-sided strip substrate for printing the otherside, while dual print head implementations may print both sides at atime or a single side at a time without having to automatically ormanually reverse the dual-sided strip substrate for printing the otherside.

FIG. 8 depicts a process 800 of generating a sheet of dual-sided productplacement and information strips, according to an implementation of theinvention.

In an operation 802, process 800 may include obtaining productinformation parameters for a first side of the dual-sided strip. Theproduct information parameters may be input from a user via a userinterface and/or from an automated process. The product informationparameters may include product information to be printed on the firstside (e.g., consumer-facing side) of the dual-sided strip.

In an operation 804, process 800 may include obtaining product placementparameters for a second side of the dual-sided strip. The productplacement information parameters may be input from a user via a userinterface and/or from an automated process. The product placementparameters may include product placement information to be printed onthe second side (e.g., shelf-facing side) of the dual-sided strip.

In an operation 806, process 800 may include formatting the dual-sidedstrip based on the product information parameters and the productplacement parameters. Such formatting may arrange the information to beprinted on the dual-sided strip. The formatting may be output as aformat file. The format file may, in some implementations, be in a humanreadable format such as Extensible Markup Language format, JAVASCRIPTObject Notation format, and/or other formats.

In an operation 808, process 800 may include generating aprinter-readable encoding based on the formatting. For example, process800 may take the format file from operation 806 as an input and generatea printer-readable encoding for a printer. Such encoding may be genericfor all printers or specific for a given type/manufacturer of theprinter (e.g., generated by a printer-specific printer driver). In anoperation 810, process 800 may include printing the dual-sided stripbased on the printer-readable encoding.

Using a dual-sided strip with dual-sided printed information for aplurality of products, stocking personnel may locate a position of theproducts on a display area such as a shelf. Each of the products mayhave product placement information printed on one side of the dual-sidedstrip and product information on the other, consumer-facing, side. Inthis manner, the stocking personnel may switch back and forth betweeneach side of the dual-sided strip to stock the shelf with the products,while properly maintaining alignment of the product information and theproducts on the shelf.

Although illustrated in FIG. 1 as a single component, composer computersystem 140 and Client devices 120 may each include a plurality ofindividual components (e.g., computer devices) each programmed with atleast some of the functions described herein. In this manner, somecomponents of composer computer system 140 and/or client device 120 mayperform some functions while other components may perform otherfunctions, as would be appreciated. The one or more processors 142 mayeach include one or more physical processors that are programmed bycomputer program instructions. The various instructions described hereinare exemplary only. Other configurations and numbers of instructions maybe used, so long as the processor(s) 142 are programmed to perform thefunctions described herein.

Furthermore, it should be appreciated that although the variousinstructions are illustrated in FIG. 1 as being co-located within asingle processing unit, in implementations in which processor(s) 142includes multiple processing units, one or more instructions may beexecuted remotely from the other instructions.

The description of the functionality provided by the differentinstructions described herein is for illustrative purposes, and is notintended to be limiting, as any of instructions may provide more or lessfunctionality than is described. For example, one or more of theinstructions may be eliminated, and some or all of its functionality maybe provided by other ones of the instructions. As another example,processor(s) 142 may be programmed by one or more additionalinstructions that may perform some or all of the functionalityattributed herein to one of the instructions. As yet another example,client device 120 may be programed with some or all of the functions ofcomposer computer system 140.

The various instructions described herein may be stored in a storagedevice 114, which may comprise random access memory (RAM), read onlymemory (ROM), and/or other memory. The storage device may store thecomputer program instructions (e.g., the aforementioned instructions) tobe executed by processor 112 as well as data that may be manipulated byprocessor 112. The storage device may comprise floppy disks, hard disks,optical disks, tapes, or other storage media for storingcomputer-executable instructions and/or data.

The various databases 160, 162 described herein may be, include, orinterface to, for example, an Oracle™ relational database soldcommercially by Oracle Corporation. Other databases, such as Informix™,DB2 (Database 2) or other data storage, including file-based, or queryformats, platforms, or resources such as OLAP (On Line AnalyticalProcessing), SQL (Structured Query Language), a SAN (storage areanetwork), Microsoft Access™ or others may also be used, incorporated, oraccessed. The database may comprise one or more such databases thatreside in one or more physical devices and in one or more physicallocations. The database may store a plurality of types of data and/orfiles and associated data or file descriptions, administrativeinformation, or any other data. The databases 160, 162 may be onsite,such as at a retail location 101 or within composer computer system 140,offsite at a remote location, offsite at a networked storage provider(e.g., AMAZON S3 storage), and/or other location so long as it isaccessible to system 100.

The various components illustrated in FIG. 1 may be coupled to at leastone other component via a network, which may include any one or more of,for instance, the Internet, an intranet, a PAN (Personal Area Network),a LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), a SAN (StorageArea Network), a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), a wireless network, acellular communications network, a Public Switched Telephone Network,and/or other network. In FIG. 1, as well as in other drawing Figures,different numbers of entities than those depicted may be used.Furthermore, according to various implementations, the componentsdescribed herein may be implemented in hardware and/or software thatconfigure hardware.

The various processing operations and/or data flows depicted in thefigures may be accomplished using some or all of the system componentsdescribed in detail above and, in some implementations, variousoperations may be performed in different sequences and variousoperations may be omitted. Additional operations may be performed alongwith some or all of the operations shown in the depicted flow diagrams.One or more operations may be performed simultaneously. Accordingly, theoperations as illustrated (and described in greater detail below) areexemplary by nature and, as such, should not be viewed as limiting.

The term “exemplary” as used herein is intended to mean “example of.”Other implementations, uses and advantages of the invention will beapparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of thespecification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. Thespecification should be considered exemplary only, and the scope of theinvention is accordingly intended to be limited only by the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system of generating a dual-sided product strip comprising a first side having printed thereon product information and a second side having printed thereon product placement information that guides placement of products on a product display, wherein the dual-sided product strip is to be printed on a sheet comprising two or more paginated sections, the system comprising: a computer system comprising one or more physical processors programmed by computer program instructions that, when executed, program the computer system to: obtain first product information for a first product to be printed on the first side of the dual-sided product strip and first product placement information for the first product to be printed on the second side of the dual-sided product strip, wherein the first product information and the first product placement information correspond to a first dual-sided label for the first product; obtain second product information for a second product to be printed on the first side of the dual-sided product strip and second product placement information for the second product to be printed on the second side of the dual-sided product strip, wherein the second product information and the second product placement information correspond to a second dual-sided label for the second product; generate dual-sided print instructions based at least on the first product information, the first product placement information, the second product information, and the second product placement information; and generate a printer-readable encoding based on the dual-sided print instructions, wherein to generate the dual-sided print instructions, the computer system is programmed to: format the first side of the dual-sided product strip, including the first product information and the second product information, to be printed on a first paginated section; and format the second side of the dual-sided product strip, including the first product placement information and the second product placement information, to be printed on a second paginated section.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dual-sided print instructions are also based on at least one grouping parameter.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is further programmed to format the first side and the second side of the dual-sided product strip to be printed side-to-side.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is further programmed to format the first side and the second side of the dual-sided product strip to be printed top-to-bottom.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the dual-sided print instructions are also based on planogram information.
 6. A system of generating a dual-sided product strip comprising a first side having printed thereon product information and a second side having printed thereon product placement information that guides placement of products on a product display, wherein the dual-sided product strip is to be printed on a sheet comprising two or more paginated sections, the system comprising: a computer system comprising one or more physical processors programmed by computer program instructions that, when executed, program the computer system to: obtain product information parameters for the first side of the dual-sided product strip; obtain product placement parameters for the second side of the dual-sided product strip; generate dual-sided print instructions based on the product information parameters, the product placement parameters, and at least one grouping parameter; and generate a printer-readable encoding based on the dual-sided print instructions, wherein to generate the dual-sided print instructions, the computer system is further programmed to: format the first side of the dual-sided product strip to be printed on a first paginated section based on the product information parameters; and format the second side of the dual-sided product strip to be printed on a second paginated section based on the product placement parameters.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the computer system is further programmed to format the first side and the second side of the dual-sided product strip to be printed side-to-side.
 8. The system of claim 6, wherein the computer system is further programmed to format the first side and the second side of the dual-sided product strip to be printed top-to-bottom.
 9. The system of claim 6, wherein the dual-sided print instructions are also based on planogram information. 